EU looks to move on from ash crisis

As Europe’s skies re-opened for flights today, political attention is turning to how the EU moves on from the ash-cloud crisis.

Around 80% of all planned flights are expected to have taken place today, according to Eurocontrol, the international organisation that monitors European airspace. Air-space has been opened almost everywhere, apart from parts of southern Sweden and northern Scotland.

But airlines face a huge backlog of passengers who need to reach their destinations. Around 100,000 flights have been cancelled since the Icelandic volcano erupted almost a week ago. The crisis is estimated to have cost airlines $1.7 billion (€1.27bn), according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

On Tuesday (27 April), Siim Kallas, the European commissioner for transport, will present a report to other commissioners on “lessons to learn” from the crisis.

Kallas will also write to transport ministers calling on them to fast-track EU proposals for a 'European network manager'; a person to co-ordinate management of European air-space. This proposal is part of plans for a ‘Single European Sky’, a pre-existing effort to bring national air-traffic management systems into line.

If the European network manager had existed they “would have made an enormous difference to a circumstance that we face at the moment”, Helen Kearns, a spokeswoman for Kallas, said. “Unfortunately, we were faced with a fragmented national network of 27 air-traffic controls over air-traffic spaces and that meant when you are faced with such a crisis [you have] limitations that did not make the situation any easier.”

A European network manager could have advised national air-traffic managers and worked out the EU’s common approach, according to the Commission, although national governments would retain sovereignty over their skies.

Bo Redeborn, the director of air-traffic management strategies at Eurocontrol, told European Voice that national governments are “not very keen” on giving up sovereignty over their air-space. He said: “There is a big distinction between relaxing all the common air rights and agreeing a common approach to this specific situation.”

The Commission is also worried that airlines are not respecting legislation that guarantees airline passengers’ rights if they are delayed.

“Passengers increasingly are struggling to claims rights having spent two, three, or in some cases four days stuck in airports,” said Kallas’s spokeswoman.

The Commission is asking for feedback from national authorities on whether rights are being upheld. Under the 2004 regulation, passengers have the right to food and accommodation while they wait to get home. “European passenger rights apply in difficult circumstances as well as in a normal, more routine situation,” said the spokeswoman.

This followed calls from IATA and other airline groups for a waiver of the obligation to provide food and accommodation for stranded passengers.